WOW!!!
This is the Contribution Page. Please feel free to add anything you like here and add your name after comment. This holiday I have been working on two big projects: a story called " Episode 2: Crumbling Sand" and "The Reign Of Teractus". Have a flick through PART ONE: THE LAST SUNRISE of this incredible saga sequel that stars all of you! The Reign Of Teractus may come out later in the term. PROLOGUE He woke up in chains. In purple, ghostly links. His heart was cold. Cruel. Self-centred. He felt sorry for himself in these chains. Taking over the world was another thing entirely. That’s when a silver-like object motioned for him towards the doorway. Another human, a girl. She looked sad, also in chains. That’s when he noticed his chains were gone. Behind him, a shadow rested, tearing apart his chain links even as they formed back together again. He nodded towards the object, and stepped into the light. PART ONE: THE LAST SUNRISE “Jem, they’ve already isolated us long time ago. Why don’t you do something?” Samuel was angry at him. Most were. He has changed, ''thought Timothy. ''So much. So full of… arrogance. Adrian and ten others had left. They were separating – and fast. Here they were, stranded on an island and dangerous things were already happening. Ellie P had gone around the other side of the island to find repairs for Josh L but had not succeeded. A crewmate by the name of Tiff was snatched by an eagle and sent to the top of a cliff: Nicholas, Ayrton and Riley had gone up to retrieve here but had not returned either. Timothy and Kevin agreed that someone was trying to separate the group – and take them down one by one. He was correct. But who was it? The Shadow King, most likely. Or maybe Jeremy or Edward. They were clearly acting suspicious. That was when the Nhzombes attacked. It was a flurry of movement. Out of the remaining group, many of them were scattered. But who could summon the Nhzombes other than the Shadow King himself? It was quite strategic, really. From out of the blue, a Nhzombe flung himself at Timothy, clutching a green dagger. Only the Shadow King would use monsters to do his bidding. The first time he had tried to take over the world, he had sent the Vassen Empire, deadly creatures that strangely resembled humans. They had three flabby wings, much like a bat’s, and poisonous venom that could make anything shrivel up. Instead of the usual legs, they had four spider-like legs that could leap well over a tree. The only flaw was that their fear of light stopped them from going anywhere. Timothy shook his head, and with ease shot the Nhzombe in the head. Blood oozed from its eye, dripping down onto the cold, stone floor. It didn’t even react. The Nhzombe merely licked its lips while Timothy unsheathed his sword. The Nhzombe parried its opponent’s attacks without even breaking a sweat. With one last groan, Timothy ran his sword into the Nhzombe’s heart, and off it plunged towards the end. Kevin was amazed at how powerful the small band of Nhzombes was. Severing the head only made both parts attack. Struggling to focus on the enemy, he stooped down, thinking and avoiding the headless Nhzombe swinging wildly where the head told it to go. The head sighed, and then locked its blood-red eyes on Kevin. Without thinking, Kevin kicked it, sending the head far over the sunset and into the sea. Now without any guidance, the body of the Nhzombe walked backwards into the wall, and fell over, helplessly trying to swim through the air. Then with a sudden jolt, it lay still. Kevin thought he could hear an explosion where he had tossed the head. But that would be impossible, right? Josh L was firing his machine gun at the Nhzombes. Unfortunately, it never works like it does in Call Of Duty or those sci-fi games. These were REAL zombies. Not ones that just walk like backward chickens or lag in mid-air. No siree. There’s no hope of coming back to life. You have one chance only. As it happened, Josh tripped over a log, spitting out a pineapple seed. He wiped it from his mouth just as a (was that a head?) flew into the nearby waters. Josh flicked the seed into the oceans. The two Nhzombes towered over him, but before they had time to stab him, an explosion sent them staggering forward and off the dock, plummeting towards the waters. Josh heard the shattering of glass, and turned his head. A glass of pineapple juice, a few biscuits and a watermelon dropped off the dock and crashed into the Nhzombes. Josh picked himself up and ran over to where the projectiles went. Two shadowy figures where under the water, looking as if they were trying to pull off their skin. Then they were figures no more. Josh was watching the whole action intently. So much so that he didn’t notice the Nhzombe behind him. General Brain Biter was grinning, his yellow teeth making his face look even more unearthly than usual. A poison-green dagger was held high above his head, ready to strike. A sharp, piercing noise occurred from below. The Nhzombe looked down. His chest was pierced by a bronze-tipped spear. He yowled and turned tails, jumping back into the raft he had come from. The attackers disappeared as fast as they had come. Later that night, the whole group met together again, with only two dead. Riley sighed. “I never thought we’d be saying this… but we need to find the Shadow King.” The others agreed, but Ayrton spoke up. “And where would he be?” * * * He woke up in chains. In purple, ghostly links. His heart was cold. Cruel. Self-centred. He felt sorry for himself in these chains. Taking over the world was another thing entirely. That’s when a silver-like object motioned for him towards the doorway. Another human, a girl. She looked sad, also in chains. That’s when he noticed his chains were gone. Behind him, a shadow rested, tearing apart his chain links even as they formed back together again. The shadow took no notice of his dim surroundings, but thought of how he could get these chains off him. He no doubt realised that this was the Underworld. But this shadow… he was not the Shadow King anymore. Just a weak, rejected kid like he was several years ago. Many in the chamber like him, wanted revenge that could not be done. Even in the chamber, he was not unknown. The shadow had ways to do things that none other than him could do. Selling those chain links for revenge would be perfect. He smiled, and clutched a small object in his hand. It was shining blue. Jeremy was now considered a global threat. Planes flew across the Atlantic, looking for a way to subdue him. He tore restaurants and cafes apart with sheer strength, and blasted soldiers into smithereens, scattering men and children alike. The team had been completely separated. Whoever was working against them – they were succeeding. Only Timothy, Kevin, Riley and two others stayed loyal. The others had stalked off. No doubt our enemy will kill us off one by one now, thought Timothy. But it couldn’t be the Shadow King… right? All his forces had been subdued. Then who ELSE could it be? It perfectly matched the impression of the Shadow King. Perhaps Riley was right. They definitely needed to see the Shadow King… and ask for help. Josh Y and Riley were discussing about barium flares and which diagram should be used. Meanwhile, Jesse shut out his ears from the bickering and went over the chemical blueprints and a few of the Shadow King’s weapon designs. In one of them, a diagram of a dagger was depicted with a syringe hidden within, containing malummus, with curo malummus labelled on the side. That’s when he noticed the strange inscription. “Hey, Josh,” he called out. “Got a dictionary on you?” Josh swivelled his head, pulled out a pocket dictionary and tossed it. Jesse caught it and flipped it open to curo malummus. He read it out loud to himself. “Curo malummus – an antidote for the evil poison malummus, which rots the body over time and makes a once-lovable victim self-centred and arrogant. Comes from Latin, curo meaning cure, and malummus meaning heart of evil.” “That must be it!” perked up Josh. All we have to do is…” He faltered as he realised the problem. “But we don’t have any curo malummus, do we?” The others shook their heads sadly. Jesse looked up suddenly. “Wait a minute…” Ten minutes later, they were racing through a top-secret laboratory, the alarms blaring through the corridor. Riley clutched the precious grey jar to his chest, racing for the shutting doors, closely followed by Timothy and Kevin. Jesse was left behind to disarm the defence systems. They dodged robots, lasers and holes in order to get out of this dimly lit underground facility. With a nod, Timothy and the others jumped out of the doors. They would make it… barely. Just then, two of the worst possible things happened. Riley was pulled back by a steely hand, and dropped the jar. It crashed onto the floor, spilling the contents everywhere. The curo malummus was gone. As was Riley. All was not lost, reasoned Kevin. We still have Jesse to analyse the DNA. It was true. The scientist had found a substance of a used medicine, and was analysing the data. Once the potion was complete, they would invade the jail in which Jeremy would be executed. Which is exactly what they did. Talitha was sent to guard the fortress. None of the rebels would be allowed to enter the stadium for Jeremy’s execution, less they find the antidote and get him out of there. Her eyes scanned the area, searching for any intruders. A figure darted back behind his hiding spot, noticing that the eyes were following him. He let out a gasp, watching the eyes staring intently into the shadows. Jesse held his breath. He himself had learnt a bit of fencing, but he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to beat her. After all, Talítha’s speed was overwhelming even when she was on their side. He heard a muffled cracking sound, and something slid across the floor, spinning. It was a gun. Jesse looked behind. Had anyone thrown it to him? Was it an accidental throw? Or maybe just a diversion. He let his eyes travel one more time before picking up the greenish gun. He closed his eyes, aimed at Talitha, and fired. A small “BANG” erupted into the air, and he felt himself being knocked down to the floor. A knife was angled at his throat. Talitha snarled. While Talitha shouted threats, Jesse noticed a small, hovering, blue object in the air floating above her head. Jesse swivelled his head to look at her. He spoke quietly. “Are you sure you want to do that? Do you really want to upset the prophecy? The world could be his. Or yours. Only I have the solution.” Talitha thought hard. Jesse never spoke this way. It was then that Talitha realised too late what he was trying to do. One look at his eyes gave it all away. Jesse was trying to distract her... from the floating, greenish gun. It was the last thing she saw. There was a roar in the stadium. Jeremy was brought up onto the stage. He struggled against the small band of guards, letting out a scream. He knocked three or four guards down while he was still tied up, and jumped off the stage. He broke free of the diamond-synthetic cords and screamed again. A few of the crowd scattered, racing for the door and letting loose a barrage of shrieks. Vines and web fluid shot down, subduing Jeremy once again. A dart was shot into his back, and he collapsed onto the ground. While he was being dragged to the guillotine, the crowd cheered, except for one. Jesse was fumbling with the vial and the emergency switches, trying to disarm them. He took a glance at the stage. The judge was proclaiming some ridiculous law about animals or something. Jesse snipped the wires, took a deep breath and jumped onto the stage. A photographer, the one who had come to the Whetht Museum Centre, to be exact, was trying to take a photo of the animal-like-human and get it on the front page of the newsletter “PIN”, when a guard leapt onto the stage. He plunged some sort of syringe into Jeremy, and ran off. The other guards did not react, expecting the security systems to come on. Nothing happened. The judge swore when he realised the two had escaped. “Now what?” 'AN ACCOUNT FROM JEREMY’S MIND ' I struggled. Of course I would. If you’d been kidnapped by a guard and stabbed with some sort of needle you’d probably do the same. I hate all those people. I don’t why I should work for people who don’t even know who I am. I saved their sorry lives more than twenty times. What do I get? An execution! They should serve free dinners and a million dollars to world-savers, right? But suddenly, I feel my brain stretching. Must be that liquid from the needle. I struggle again. It’s uncomfortable being bumped up and down and seeing nothing but ground and tunnel walls. Especially when you’re wrapped up in bug-infested vines and sticky spiderwebs. My body feels like it’s mutating. The red glaze from my eyes begin to disappear. The creases on under my eyes shrink. I feel relaxed and more positive. Then I fall asleep. * * * “Commander Jeremy! You’re awake!”Josh Y rushes over and checks his temperature. “Stay down. You have a high fever.”Jeremy blinked and rubbed his eyes. “How high?”” Jesse walked over and said with a sigh, “How about 42.3 C˚?” Jeremy’s eyes rolled and he fell back in shock. “Well, he’s asleep.” When Jeremy next woke up, he was surrounded by a slightly larger group. “What happened?”he asked Ayrton. As Josh L was sent to get him some water, Ayrton explained that a beacon located in Jeremy’s watch had somehow got them back together again. “But I don’t have... a watch.” His voice trailed off, feeling something tight on his wrist. He looked down at the beeping watch and tried to take it off. It wouldn’t budge. He examined the watch more carefully and saw the initials B.C engraved beneath the frame. The hour hand had a “H” engraved on it whereas the minute hand had a “B” polished in gold. The time showed 12:00. “Have I been awake that long?” His voice showed signs of puzzlement. “What do you mean?”exclaimed Brandon. “It’s only six in the morning!”shouted another. Jeremy scratched his head. The situation was just about to get more confusing.